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PERLSH(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation PERLSH(1)

NAME

perlsh - one-line perl evaluator with line editing function and
variable name completion function

SYNOPSIS

  perlsh

DESCRIPTION

This program reads input a line, and evaluates it by perl interpreter, and prints the result. If the result is a list value then each value of the list is printed line by line. This program can be used as a very strong calculator which has whole perl functions.

This is a sample program Term::ReadLine::Gnu module. When you input a line, the line editing function of GNU Readline Library is available. Perl symbol name completion function is also available.

Before invoking, this program reads ~/.perlshrc and evaluates the content of the file.

When this program is terminated, the content of the history buffer is saved in a file ~/.perlsh_history, and it is read at next invoking.

VARIABLES

You can customize the behavior of "perlsh" by setting following variables in ~/.perlshrc;

$PerlSh::PS1
The primary prompt string. The following backslash-escaped special characters can be used.

        \h: host name
        \u: user name
        \w: package name
        \!: history number
    

The default value is `"\w[\!]$ "'.

$PerlSh::PS2
The secondary prompt string. The default value is `"> "'.
$PerlSh::HISTFILE
The name of the file to which the command history is saved. The default value is "~/.perlsh_history".
$PerlSh::HISTSIZE
If not "undef", this is the maximum number of commands to remember in the history. The default value is 256.
$PerlSh::STRICT
If true, restrict unsafe constructs. See "use strict" in perl man page. The default value is 0;

FILES

~/.perlshrc
This file is eval-ed at initialization. If a subroutine "afterinit" is defined in this file, it will be eval-ed after initialization. Here is a sample.

        # -*- mode: perl -*-
        # decimal to hexa
        sub h { map { sprintf("0x%x", $_ ) } @_;}
        sub tk {
            $t->tkRunning(1);
            use Tk;
            $mw = MainWindow->new();
        }
        # for debugging Term::ReadLine::Gnu
        sub afterinit {
            *t = \$PerlSh::term;
            *a = \$PerlSh::attribs;
        }
    
~/.perlsh_history
~/.inputrc
A initialization file for the GNU Readline Library. Refer its manual for details.

SEE ALSO

Term::ReadLine::Gnu <http://search.cpan.org/dist/Term-ReadLine-Gnu/>

GNU Readline Library <https://tiswww.cwru.edu/php/chet/readline/rltop.html>

AUTHOR

Hiroo Hayashi <hiroo.hayashi@computer.org>

2023-07-02 perl v5.40.0